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14 2016 IL CAPITALE CULTURALE Studies on the Value of Cultural Heritage JOURNAL OF THE SECTION OF CULTURAL HERITAGE Department of Education, Cultural Heritage and Tourism University of Macerata Il Capitale culturale Fiorella Dallari, Stefano Della Torre, Maria Studies on the Value of Cultural Heritage del Mar Gonzalez Chacon, Maurizio De Vita, Vol. 14, 2016 Michela Di Macco, Fabio Donato, Rolando Dondarini, Andrea Emiliani, Gaetano Maria ISSN 2039-2362 (online) Golinelli, Xavier Greffe, Alberto Grohmann, Susan Hazan, Joel Heuillon, Emanuele Invernizzi, Lutz Klinkhammer, Federico © 2016 eum edizioni università di macerata Marazzi, Fabio Mariano, Aldo M. Morace, Registrazione al Roc n. 735551 del 14/12/2010 Raffaella Morselli, Olena Motuzenko, Giuliano Pinto, Marco Pizzo, Edouard Pommier, Carlo Direttore Pongetti, Adriano Prosperi, Angelo R. Pupino, Massimo Montella Bernardino Quattrociocchi, Mauro Renna, Orietta Rossi Pinelli, Roberto Sani, Girolamo Co-Direttori Sciullo, Mislav Simunic, Simonetta Stopponi, Tommy D. Andersson, Elio Borgonovi, Michele Tamma, Frank Vermeulen, Stefano Rosanna Cioffi , Stefano Della Torre, Michela Vitali Di Macco, Daniele Manacorda, Serge Noiret, Tonino Pencarelli, Angelo R. Pupino, Web Girolamo Sciullo http://riviste.unimc.it/index.php/cap-cult e-mail Coordinatore editoriale [email protected] Francesca Coltrinari Editore Coordinatore tecnico eum edizioni università di macerata, Centro Pierluigi Feliciati direzionale, via Carducci 63/a – 62100 Macerata Comitato editoriale tel (39) 733 258 6081 Giuseppe Capriotti, Alessio Cavicchi, Mara fax (39) 733 258 6086 Cerquetti, Francesca Coltrinari, Patrizia http://eum.unimc.it Dragoni, Pierluigi Feliciati, Enrico Nicosia, [email protected] Valeria Merola, Francesco Pirani, Mauro Saracco, Emanuela Stortoni Layout editor Cinzia De Santis Comitato scientifi co - Sezione di beni culturali Giuseppe Capriotti, Mara Cerquetti, Francesca Progetto grafi co Coltrinari, Patrizia Dragoni, Pierluigi Feliciati, +crocevia / studio grafi co Maria Teresa Gigliozzi, Valeria Merola, Susanne Adina Meyer, Massimo Montella, Umberto Moscatelli, Sabina Pavone, Francesco Pirani, Mauro Saracco, Michela Scolaro, Emanuela Stortoni, Federico Valacchi, Carmen Vitale Comitato scientifi co Michela Addis, Tommy D. Andersson, Alberto Rivista accreditata AIDEA Mario Banti, Carla Barbati, Sergio Barile, Nadia Barrella, Marisa Borraccini, Rossella Rivista riconosciuta CUNSTA Caffo, Ileana Chirassi Colombo, Rosanna Rivista riconosciuta SISMED Cioffi , Caterina Cirelli, Alan Clarke, Claudine Cohen, Gian Luigi Corinto, Lucia Corrain, Rivista indicizzata WOS Giuseppe Cruciani, Girolamo Cusimano, Musei e mostre tra le due guerre a cura di Silvia Cecchini e Patrizia Dragoni Saggi «Il capitale culturale», XIV (2016), pp. 275-345 ISSN 2039-2362 (online) DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.13138/2039-2362/1385 © 2016 eum Painting the National Portrait. Retrospectives of Italian and French Art in the 1930’s Kate Kangaslahti* Un portrait risque parfois de ressembler au modèle, il ressemble toujours au peintre. Paul Léon, Exhibition of French Art 1932, p. XIV Nous avons tenté aussi notre portrait de la France. Henri Focillon, Chefs d’œuvre de l’art français 1937, p. XIII Abstract In contrast to the museum, exhibitions, by virtue of their temporary nature, allow art to be mobilised in response to more immediate demands and, in the case of the travelling exhibition, export historical narratives of the nation abroad. This essays examines four * Kate Kangaslahti, research fellow Ku Leuven, Etienne Sabbelaan 53 - box 7656 8500 Kortrijk, Belgium, e-mail: [email protected]. 276 KATE KANGASLAHTI exhibitions of French and Italian art which took place in the decade before the Second World War: two in London, the “Exhibition of Italian Art” in 1930 and the “Exhibition of French Art” in 1932; and two in Paris, “L’Art italien de Cimabue à Tiepolo” in 1935 and the “Chefs d’œuvre de l’art français” in 1937. In comparing the shows – their organisation, contents, display and critical reception – my intention is to unpick the various political, art historical, even economic interests which sought to marshal art in these years. If the different faces these retrospectives presented were neither faithful nor scholarly refl ections, in each case the evocation of a distant past was a mirror that refl ected the divergent needs of the present. Contrariamente ai musei, la natura temporanea delle esposizioni permette all’arte di essere spostata in risposta a domande più immediate e, nel caso di esposizioni itineranti, di esportare narrative storiche della nazione all’estero. Questo saggio esamina quattro esibizioni d’arte francese e italiana che si sono tenute nel decennio che ha preceduto la Seconda Guerra Mondiale: due a Londra, “L’esposizione d’arte Italiana” del 1930 e “L’esposizione d’arte francese” del 1932; due a Parigi, “L’arte italiana da Cimabue a Tiepolo” del 1935 e “Capolavori dell’arte francese” del 1937. Dal confronto delle suddette – la loro organizzazione, i contenuti, l’esposizione e la critica – la mia intenzione è di discernere i fattori politici, artistici, ed anche economici che hanno spinto ha promuovere l’arte in questi anni. Se le varie sfaccettature che queste retrospettive hanno presentato non erano né fedeli e neppure rifl essioni erudite, in ogni caso l’evocazione di un distante passato era uno specchio che rifl etteva i divergenti bisogni del presente. On 7 December 1936, the directeur général des Beaux-Arts, Georges Huisman, assembled a distinguished group of scholars, curators and cultural functionaries to discuss plans for a vast retrospective of French art. The exhibition was a late addition to the programme for the Exposition internationale des arts et techniques dans la vie moderne in Paris the following year and the directive came from the Prime Minister, Léon Blum. The committee’s brief was two- fold: fi rstly, «to demonstrate the continuity of French art from its earliest beginnings»1; secondly, «to show the public an ensemble of works of art, the likes of which [had] never before been seen»2. Organised in admirable haste, the “Chefs d’œuvre de l’art français” (fi g. 1) opened at the newly built Palais de Tokyo on 26 June 1937 and excited great fanfare. The 1.340 works on display collectively offered, in the words of the Minister for National Education and Fine Arts, Jean Zay, «a census of our national artistic riches»3, a wealth all the more apparent because none of the masterpieces were from the nation’s greatest repository, the Louvre. The various paintings, drawings, sculptures and tapestries were drawn from provincial and foreign museums, from private collections at home and abroad, representing some ten centuries of work that 1 Paris, Archives Nationales, (henceforth AN), Sous-série Beaux-Arts, F/21/4082, organising committee meeting, 7 December 1936. 2 AN Sous-série Beaux-Arts, F/21/4729, letter from Georges Huisman to André François- Poncet, French Ambassador to Germany, 5 February 1937. 3 Chefs-d’œuvre de l’art français 1937, p. VIII. PAINTING THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT 277 had come, Blum noted with pride, «from all corners of the globe to attest to the eternal prestige of French art»4. More than merely the sum of these magnifi cent parts, the incontestable glory of le patrimoine here stood as a likeness for la patrie. As the eminent French scholar Henri Focillon declared in his introduction to the catalogue, «we have attempted too our portrait of France»5. Despite the lofty ambitions of the committee and the accolades which invariably greeted the display, the “Chefs d’œuvre de l’art français” was not an event without parallel or precedent. The art historian Louis Gillet attributed the speed with which organisers had assembled the show to their involvement in «the unforgettable exhibition at the Royal Academy»6 fi ve years earlier, when they had served on France’s offi cial delegation to the “Exhibition of French Art, 1200-1900” in 19327. Putting this experience to good use, the same learned team had doubled its efforts to ensure that «Paris [was] equal to London, and the Quai de Tokyo [was] every bit as good as, if not better than, Burlington House»8. The exhibition of French art in London was itself one of a number of ambitious national retrospectives that had taken place at the Royal Academy, including the equally memorable “Exhibition of Italian Art, 1200- 1900” in 1930. Then, precious works from many of Italy’s leading museums had graced the walls of Burlington House, to the delight of expectant crowds and the confi dent prediction of the English press that such an event would «not be robbed of its importance as a ‘gesture’ by repetition»9. Yet only fi ve years passed before this fi rst, spectacular manifestation of italianità was followed by a second, even greater display. In 1935, many more loans again arrived at the Petit Palais in Paris for “L’Art italien de Cimabue à Tiepolo”, where this time the French public enjoyed the privilege of beholding «the eternal face of Italy»10. Each of these never to be – but soon to be – repeated events, more than simply presenting a slice of French or Italian cultural heritage, rich though it was, were intended as embodiments of the national character. As scholars like Francis Haskell and Eric Michaud have shown, by the mid-nineteenth century European historians widely believed that the arts of a given society were the most reliable marker of its true complexion11; as a corollary, burgeoning scholarship devoted to the history of art studied individual objects according to “styles”, styles that were determined along national lines12. Other, now 4 Ivi, p. VI. 5 Ivi, p. XIII. 6 Gillet 1937, p. 274. 7 The various committees are listed in the respective catalogues. See Exhibition of French Art, 1200-1900 1932, pp. VI-XIII; and Chefs-d’œuvre de l’art français 1937, pp. XXVII-XXIX. 8 Gillet 1937, p. 274. 9 Italian Art Exhibition 1929, p. 12. 10 Ojetti 1935. 11 Haskell 1993, p. 217. 12 Michaud 2012, p.